Minutes 03-03-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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In the interest of time, I'll submit detailed service deliver totals from the most recent fiscal year in writing. However, with respect to our housing programs, in the last fiscal year: • Community House provided 17,200 nights of safe shelter for 370 men • HomeStart provided 13,400 nights of safe shelter to 200 women and 80 children • Our Robert Nixon Free Clinic ■ Provided free health care to 350 residents ■ Provided free mental health care to 160 residents ■ Dispensed 500 prescriptions IFC has been operating the Community House and HomeStart at this scale since 1998 when our HomeStart facility opened on land generously made available by the Commissioners. Currently nearly 57%, or $994,000, of our $1.75 million cash budget, supports Community House, HomeStart and the free clinic. Included in this funding is approximately $40,000 in local government dollars and $59,000 from the federal Emergency Solutions Grant. From our vantage point, we believe the FY 2015-20 Consolidated Plan should consider the following factors: 1. The new Inter-Faith Council @SECU Community House is scheduled to open in September 2015 and will provide 52 beds for a men's transitional housing program. At HomeStart, IFC also has ten bedrooms available for women—and women with children—enrolled in a transitional housing program. Last fiscal year 87 men, women, and children successfully found permanent housing after completing the program at IFC. This year the numbers are down because of a noticeable reduction in affordable housing opportunities. Those who successfully complete their transitional housing program typically seek permanent affordable housing in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community to be near their place of employment and their support networks. Often those who are ready to leave IFC's housing programs delay their departure until suitable affordable housing can be found. It is our experience that without more affordable rental housing, IFC program residents will either stay enrolled longer than necessary, move further away from their place of employment and support networks for the sake of affordable housing, or move into substandard housing in closer proximity to employment and support. Hence, we believe all agencies in Orange County that offer transitional housing programs (IFC, Horizons, etc.) would be more successful if the supply of affordable housing in our community increases by at least twenty-five net units each year available for transitional housing program graduates for the duration of the Consolidated Plan's planning horizon. 2. With respect to Emergency Shelter, currently neither Community House nor HomeStart have limits on how many persons can be accommodated on bad weather nights. At HomeStart we rarely have more emergency shelter guests than emergency shelter beds, which are sixteen. However, at the IFC @SECU Community House, IFC will be limited to seventeen (17) emergency shelter beds for homeless men. This year, beginning in November, on most bad weather nights, we've had at least 20 men staying overnight on a weather-emergency basis.